Honda trackside general manager and chief engineer, Shintaro Orihara, has delivered a clear message after a nightmare end to pre-season testing in Bahrain, declaring the Japanese manufacturer "not happy."
Aston Martin and Honda have faced a disastrous pre-season, which began with missing the vast majority of the Barcelona shakedown last month.
Their struggles worsened across the two Bahrain tests, which ended on Friday with Lance Stroll managing to complete just six laps, none of which were timed.
The Silverstone-based outfit announced, with two hours remaining on the final day, that its programme for the day was complete—a result of the major issues experienced on Thursday.
Fernando Alonso ground to a halt on Thursday afternoon just an hour into running, with Honda declaring that another power unit problem had been discovered.
To highlight the extent of Honda’s issues, a shortage of power unit parts limited Aston Martin to just six laps of running.
Honda is the manufacturer with the most work to be done to avoid a further disaster for itself and Aston Martin at the Australian Grand Prix.
"Our main target during this week’s test was to build up mileage on the power unit, check the engine reliability and gather data," said Orihara. "We collected data successfully; however, we didn’t achieve the accumulated mileage that we were targeting.
"On Thursday, we identified an issue in the power unit, and all of us have been uniting efforts to find a solution during our last day of testing.
"[Thursday night and on Friday], HRC Sakura, the AMRTC in Silverstone and our crews in Bahrain worked together on a limited run plan, which was jointly agreed considering a shortage of parts.
“It has been an enduring week, but we extend our thanks to the team for their support trackside and everyone working in Japan and the UK remotely.
"Overall, we are not happy with our performance and our reliability at the moment. However, we are all looking for solutions together in Sakura, Milton Keynes and Silverstone."
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